“A little over five hundred tons on our place,” said Dill.  “And I sent a small crew over to the Bridger place; they have nearly a hundred tons there.  You said for me to gather every spear I could,” he reminded humorously, “and I obeyed to the best of my ability.”

“Good shot, Dilly.  I’ll round up eight or nine hundred calves, then; that’ll help some.  Well, shall I cut the top off this bunch uh beef, or throw the whole business back on the range?  You’re the doctor.”

Dill rode close to the high fence, stood in his stirrups and looked down upon the mass of broad, sleek backs moving restlessly in and out and around, with no aim but to seek some way of escape.  The bawling made speech difficult at any distance, and the dust sent him coughing away.

“I think, William,” he said, when he was again beside Billy, “I shall leave this matter to your own judgment.  What I want is to get every cent possible out of the beef we ship; the details I am content to leave with you, for in my ignorance I should probably botch the job.  I suppose we can arrange it so that, in case the market rises suddenly, you can rush in a trainload at short notice?”

“Give me two weeks to get action on the range stuff, and I can have a trainload on the way to Chicago so quick it’ll make your head whirl.  I’ll make it a point to be ready on short notice.  And before we pull out I’ll give yuh a kinda programme uh the next three or four weeks, so yuh can send a man out and he’ll have some show uh finding us.  And I won’t bring in another herd till you send word—­only yuh want to bear in mind that I can’t set out there on a pinnacle till snow flies, waiting for prices to raise in Chicago.  Yuh don’t want to lose sight uh them nine hundred calves we’ve got to gather yet.”

It was all well enough for Billy to promise largely and confidently, but he failed to take into account one small detail over which he had no control.  So perfect was his system of gathering beef—­and he gathered only the best, so as to catch the top price—­that when Dill’s message came, short and hurried but punctiliously worded and perfectly punctuated, that beef had raised to four-thirty and “Please rush shipment as per agreement,” Billy had his trainload of beef in Tower, ready to load just three days after receiving notice.  But here interfered the detail over which he had no control.  Dill had remembered to order the cars, but shipping was heavy and cars were not to be had.

Two long, heartrending weeks they waited just outside Tower, held there within easy reach—­and upon mighty short feed for the herd—­by the promises of the railroad management and the daily assurance of the agent that the cars might be along at any time within four hours. (He always said four hours, which was the schedule time for fast freight between Tower and the division point.) Two long weeks, while from the surrounding hills they watched long stock trains winding snakily over the prairie toward Chicago.  During those maddening days and nights Billy added a fresh crease to the group between his eyebrows and deepened the old ones, and Dill rode three horses thin galloping back and forth between the ranch and the herd, in helpless anxiety.